Link Love (2015-03-28)

Thought-provoking

“What is it that is so threatening about the idea that your country may not be perfect? What, even, is so threatening about the idea that your country has in the past committed acts of atrocity? Perhaps this is born of the idea that we cannot be loyal to our country if we believe it has any faults, past or present, and that such loyalty is critical. I object to this idea, both because I think being loyal to ideals is more important than being loyal to a government and because I don’t think loyalty has to entail either blind faith or unquestioning disobedience.” If We Can’t Come to Grips With the Past, How Are We to Grapple With the Present? – Love, Joy, Feminism

“Economics tells us that more choice is better. And for most of human existence that has been true.
But research is showing that more choice is not always better. Overflowing email inboxes, 500 television channels and 175 different kinds of salad dressing at the grocery store don’t make life drastically better — it’s paralyzing.” How to Find Happiness in Today’s Hectic World – Barking Up the Wrong Tree

Religion

“* When their “miracle” gets discredited, Christians tend to get mad at the person who actually did their work for them rather than examine why they spread a false story around, much less take responsibility for spreading an untrue story!
Miracles are proof of the supernatural–until they get disproven, at which point nobody should be testing a god. The burden of proof is on the Christians insisting that a miracle happened to show that it really was a miracle, but they tend to repeat these stories with the clear expectation that nobody will ever ask them to pony up that proof. It’s almost comical to see how outraged and ruffled they get when their claim is questioned in any way; I suspect based both on my own experience as a Christian and how I see Christians acting nowadays that there’s a social contract in operation here that protects these claims from any examination. If someone rejects a Christian’s miracle claim, then that skeptic is called “close-minded” (because obviously, the best show of open-mindedness is leaping on the first preposterous “explanation” offered for something and refusing to even wonder if there’s some better, more credible explanation for it).
So no, I don’t find miracle claims to be even the slightest bit compelling or credible. I find them to be the exact opposite.” Here Is Why That Miracle Claim Does Not Impress Me – Ex-Communications

Equality

“The word “female,” in its primary usage, is an adjective. When you use “female” as a noun, the subject that you’re referring to is erased.
For example:
“I talked to a female yesterday.”
A female what? A female kangaroo? A female rock snake? The subject of the sentence is not clear.
“I talked to a female presidential candidate yesterday.”
This sentence is now about a human being.
It should be noted, though, that using “female” as an adjective can take a sexist turn when used in a case that isn’t notable. Referencing a “female firefighter,” for example, is appropriate only when her being female is pertinent to the story; otherwise, she’s just a firefighter. But if you’re talking about the first woman to become a firefighter, saying “the first female firefighter” is acceptable because her gender is relevant.” 6 Reasons You Should Stop Referring to Women as “Females” Right Now – BuzzFeed

“The night winds on, with discussion of rape and the smothering of penises, the sorrows of false accusations and the narcissism of young girls. A sore point for Factory, who has two daughters, who, like young women everywhere, he says, compete for the most exaggerated rape claim. It is, he says, a status thing. When one of his daughters came home one night and said she’d been raped, he said, “Are you fucking kidding me?” Sitting with us, he hikes his voice up to a falsetto in imitation: ” ‘Oh, I just got raped.’ ” He laughs. There’s a moment of silence. A bridge too far? “I told her if she pressed charges, I’d disown her.”
Elam, whose attention has drifted, grins through his beard. “That’s good fathering,” he says.
Factory loves his children. He would have reacted differently if it had been what he in theory considers a legitimate claim, but—”if you don’t have videotape or forensic, a whole lot of bruises, I don’t give a fuck.”” What Kind of Man Joins the Men’s Rights Movement? – GQ

“Women receive only 5-10% of venture capital; they’re seriously underinvested in by Silicon Valley’s angels and institutions. There are urgent and necessary debates in Silicon Valley around objectification, misogyny in the workplace, and how hard it is for women to be leaders without being labeled ‘bossy’. What’s equally clear is that we’re not funding female founders, and billions are being left on the table. There’s been no female equivalent for the meteoric rise to success enjoyed by Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, or Elon Musk, and right now in the Valley there’s a vicious cycle. Without a success story featuring a woman there’s a strong confirmation bias that women don’t have what it takes. And with no-one investing in women — seeing an opportunity no-one else has and capitalizing on it, which is what investors are supposed to do — it’s unlikely we’ll see one of these stories anytime soon.” Why women are undervalued in Silicon Valley – Fortune

Beauty & Body Image

“The internet hates women who don’t look the way they’re “supposed to.” This is beyond terrible for more reasons than I can state. In short:Internet shamers encourage women to believe that the most important thing for her to be is properly thin and proportioned. Women with children are led to believe this. Young women are led to believe this. Adolescent girls are led to believe this. Self-worth goes out the window. Priorities that actually matter like health and love and goodness and family go out the window. Women of all shapes and sizes become self-scrutinizing, self-hating, self-doubting, terrified, controlling, perfectionistic worriers who are in existential pain all of the time.” The Internet Hates Cellulite and Here’s Why – Paleo for Women

Inspirational

“Rest is essential. But when things get hard and rushed it is the first thing that we give up, that we relinquish – sleep, time off, time together. We give up these necessities all to get work done, to strive towards the joy, the peace the fulfilment we crave.” In Defense of Doing Nothing – Grace Quantock

“And toxic friends aren’t even necessarily total jerks. They might just be people who discourage you, drain your energy, exude limiting, fear-based beliefs, or aren’t interested in self expansion or personal growth. You get to choose the people you surround yourself with.
And reality check:
just because you have history with someone doesn’t mean you need to make them part of your future.” Do you need a friend detox? – Danielle Dowling